Public Health

A comprehensive report from the U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) suggests that treating and preventing high blood pressure—which causes nearly half of all cases of heart failure each year in the U.S.—needs to be a higher public health priority. The report highlights some grim figures: roughly one in three American adults has high

As the L.A. Timeshealth blog reports, the Food and Drug Administration recently issued a warning advising consumers not to use “ear candles”—fabric that is soaked in either paraffin or beeswax, set on fire and deliberately placed in the ear. These candles, which allow wax to drip into the ear canal (if you don’t set your hair on fire

In light of recent stories of zinc-poisoning among users of several denture creams, and a subsequent wave of lawsuits, pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, the producer of Poligrip products, announced that it will remove zinc from its denture creams, the Associated Press reports. In the meantime, Glaxo issued a press release emphasizing

Much time and effort has been dedicated to researching the mental health benefits of flexible work environments, but can the ability to leave work early to watch your son’s soccer game, or arrive at the office a bit later in the morning in order to see to some personal errands, have broader physical health benefits beyond making you feel

Closing the societal gender gap is a noble goal, but there is at least one area where women shouldn’t be striving to outdo men: drunk driving. While, in keeping with historic trends, overall men are still more likely to get into deadly alcohol-related accidents than women, a new study published in the journal Injury Prevention suggests

Wearing a condom that doesn’t fit correctly—is too big, for example—may increase the chances of the condom breaking, slipping or coming off or being taken off during intercourse, increasing the risk for sexually transmitted infections, according to a study from researchers at the College of Public Health at the University of

A Texas nurse is on trial this week for reporting a doctor whose practices she believed endangered patients. As Kevin Sack of the New York Timesreports, last year Anne Mitchell submitted a report expressing her concerns about Dr. Rolando G. Arafiles Jr.’s prescription and surgical procedures—including sewing a rubber tip onto a

A moving public service announcement from the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership in the U.K. has quickly become a viral phenomenon—with views in at least 89 countries and a Facebook group of 1,500 members and counting. The “Embrace Life” ad was launched on January 20, and added to YouTube on January 29, where it’s since been seen nearly

Johnson & Johnson, the company that manufacturers Tylenol, issued a voluntary recall of several batches of Tylenol, Motrin and Rolaids products in light of reports that the pills were giving off “an unusual moldy, musty, or mildew-like odor,” and had been linked to bouts of diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal pain in a small number of

Soda fountains may dispense more than Diet Coke and Dr. Pepper, according to new research to be published this month in the International Journal of Food Microbiology. In an analysis of 90 soda and water samples taken from fountains in 30 different fast food restaurants in the Roanoke Valley region of Virginia, researchers from Hollins

In recent years New York City has earned a reputation for ambitious—and some argue, overreaching—efforts to improve its’ citizens health. In 2006, the city’s Board of Health voted to ban trans fats in restaurant cooking. Two years later, they mandated that any restaurants with 15 or more chain locations post calorie content in their

Raising children in an über-hygienic atmosphere may inhibit immune system development key to fighting infection and disease later in life, according to a new study from researchers at Northwestern University. Researchers followed a group of more than 3,000 Filipino children from their mother’s third trimester of pregnancy through 22

The growing number of Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections in hospitals may in part be driven by physicians’ tendency to over-prescribe antibiotics to avoid being sued by disgruntled patients, according to a study published this past fall in the American Journal of Therapeutics. Researchers from New York Medical